There are times when family members are travelling, and where a catastrophic event that incapacitates or kills the travelling family members would place pets and/or other people at their home in jeopardy should the travelers not return for days, weeks, or at all. For long duration trips and/or trips to distant destinations, people typically make provision for having their pets and/or children watched over. However for short trips—especially day trips—they typically do not, especially with respect to their pets. A day trip may include driving for many hours, and the real possibility exists for a catastrophic accident to occur without any friends or family being aware.
A solution is needed to provide automatic notification of responsible persons should such unfortunate eventualities occur, and/or when conditions exist that indicate the potential for such emergency conditions. At the same time, an automatic notification system should include provisions to avoid unnecessarily disturbing those responsible persons.
Note that a “home” location and an “arrival” location are used interchangeably. Note that a “return” time and an “arrival” time are used interchangeably since the most frequently designated arrival time will be when travelers return home. Also note that a user registering with the system to set up and track a trip according to the invention may or may not be a traveler. 3rd parties may or may not be emergency contact persons, depending on how a particular trip is set up.